Capsules are widely used in administration of pharmaceuticals and nutritionals to humans and animals. Capsules also have divergent uses, such as serving as reservoirs of plant fertilizer for easy application, of colorants, of food materials or food supplements, and of cosmetic ingredients. Alginate is a convenient material for the film part of the capsule because it can be formed in the process of preparing the capsule.
Seamless alginate capsules having a variety of desirable characteristics are described in WO 03/084516. U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,737 to Shigeno et al. discloses surfactant-containing seamless capsules. U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,266 to Okamura et al. discloses an edible pearly capsule and method for its production. Ueda, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,921, discloses a method for preparing fish-egg-like edible products. Gåserød et al. disclose improvements in or relating to capsules in WO 99/02252. Lee et al. disclose microencapsulation for controlled oral drug delivery system in EP 0480729.
Particularly for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical delivery, however, capsules advantageously should be sturdy, dry, stable, resistant to unwanted degradation, able to rapidly release their contents upon suitable delivery, and aesthetically pleasing.